In recent weeks, we’ve seen an especially strong spotlight on the arts in Savannah.
The Telfair Art Fair and other offerings have showcased local visual artists, and a variety of developments have brought attention from around the world to the Savannah music scene.
For starters, the Savannah Music Festival recently released its 2015 lineup. The news of the festival’s first foray into opera — a collaboration with the Savannah VOICE Festival and Savannah Philharmonic — attracted particular notice.
The festival will once again feature stellar musicians from a broad range of traditions, and the 2015 schedule seems especially notable for performances by accomplished artists such as Lucinda Williams, Mavis Staples, Dianne Reeves and Rosanne Cash.
Savannah Stopover Musical Festival also recently released a portion of its 2015 lineup.
Savannah Stopover, which brings dozens of indie bands to town for three heady days in March, is only entering its 5th year, but the initial lineup got significant notice in the music press, including from influential sites like Paste Magazine and Brooklyn Vegan.
On Nov. 15, the Savannah Children’s Choir hosted “A Night in Bohemia” to benefit the nonprofit’s travel scholarship fund. The event at the SCAD Museum of Art featured the Metropolitan Opera’s Keith Miller in a version of “La Boheme.”
And it’s worth noting that Savannah’s music community has received attention from around the world since the passing of Jonathan Athon, the bass player for Black Tusk. Athon died as a result of injuries sustained in a traffic accident.
I don’t know how many readers of City Talk listen to metal or have even heard of Black Tusk, but the band was founded in 2005 and has been touring internationally for years.
Since Athon’s passing, there has been an amazing outpouring of support, especially via social media. Much of that support has referenced Savannah’s tight-knit music community.
In a 2013 interview with Oregon Music News, Athon himself discussed how the compactness of the city contributes to a sense of togetherness.
“Everyone is so artistic and so into their different things that everyone meshes,” Athon told the interviewer. “You’ll see metal kids at the hip-hop night. You’ll see hip-hop kids at the country night. Everyone gets along. It’s so small that you have to.”
And that seems an appropriate metaphor for the broader community of musicians and music lovers in Savannah. The local scene has many subsets, but they overlap in a variety of strange and wonderful ways.
Upcoming legislative session could impact Hutchinson Island’s future
So, casino gambling on Hutchinson Island?
Living down here on the coast, it can be pretty easy to divorce oneself from what happens under the gold dome in Atlanta.
But Savannahians might want to pay special attention to the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.
It looks as if locally elected state lawmakers might push for some form of legalized gambling on Hutchinson Island even though Savannah Harbor Associates, which has been working for several years on a 27-acre mixed-use development, has a different vision for the island.
It’s also worth noting that the city of Savannah recently committed to build a joint police and fire station on Hutchinson Island to encourage development. The Savannah Chamber of Commerce is pushing for $14 million in state funding for Slip 1 on the island, also in the name of economic development.
It’s worth remembering, too, that the 2014 legislative session included an attempt by Chatham County to de-annex Hutchinson Island from the city of Savannah.
In other words, we might be on the verge of spending many millions in public money on Hutchinson Island, but elected officials and private developers are not all on the same page.
Will a coherent vision for Hutchinson Island emerge? Should we pursue major public expenditures when the future is so uncertain?
In 2015, Georgia lawmakers might also consider other legislation of particular interest in Savannah, such as funding sources for transportation infrastructure projects.
The coastal region that includes Savannah soundly rejected T-SPLOST a couple of years ago, and it seems likely area voters would reject similar proposals in the future.
So what options might we have for upgrading roads that serve the port? Or for enhancing safety on some of our stressed roadways, like Highway 80?
Let’s hope Savannahians pay close attention as state leaders consider questions like these.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.